cade🦇

ride my wave 🌊

[The Touchline | 𝐓 @TouchlineX]

🚨🤍 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Yan Diomande emotional letter to his late sister:

"Dear Roxane,

Remember when somebody bought me a fake United jersey, and I wrote Ronaldo 7 on the back with the black marker?"

"We didn’t know rich or poor. We just knew happiness."

"Remember 25 people sleeping in one house back in Abidjan? Mum wanted to watch her soap operas. Everyone else wanted to watch movies. Remember how I always used to fake like I was asleep and then go into the TV room after midnight? I’d put the TV on real low. Just like 2 volume bars. I’d watch football in the dark and dream."

"Remember when the adults saw me playing football in the dirt and nicknamed me “Roberto Carlos” because of how hard I would shoot? And remember how I was secretly so mad about it, because CR7 was my idol?"

"Remember when I went to play so far from home? I was 9 years old. Inter Foot Sud Comoé, all the way near the Ghana border. Just a little boy on his own. I don’t know if I ever told you this story, but me and the other kids used to go into the village and steal potatoes because we were so hungry. We did a “bank heist.” Two kids distracting the shop owner, and 18 other kids running out with two potatoes. They weren’t even good. But they tasted amazing. Hahahah. It’s still my favorite thing to eat. Boiled potatoes with some oil. It reminds me of those times."

"Remember when I got my first real football boots, and I used to sleep with them? Growing up, I always played in those white plastic sandals. Even when I go back home now, I still play in them. It’s our tradition."

"Remember when I would come back home, and you would tell my friends from the neighborhood, “Why did you stop training? Yan is not going to buy you cars. You have to keep working."

"You were 10 years old, and already my agent."

"Remember how we used to sit and dream about moving to France? How we were going to go shopping and get our own apartment and I was going to be a rich footballer with cars and a big house, and you wouldn’t have to worry about nothing. You were the one who always believed that I could be the next Cristiano, when everybody else laughed."

"Remember when I moved to America for high school at 15, and I was so homesick? I didn’t know what anybody was saying for months. They sat me next to a French kid, and he tried to translate everything the teacher was saying. Remember when I called you, saying, “You won’t believe it, the kids here argue with teachers."

"Back home, you know we wouldn’t even dare to blink at our elders."

"Remember when I couldn’t believe the kids were smoking after school? You used to say it sounded like I was in an American TV show."

"Remember when they took me on trial at Bournemouth? At Chelsea, Rangers, Olympiacos, Crystal Palace? Eze and Olise even came up to me after one training and said, “Yo kid, you’re really good.”"

"But they still didn’t sign me."

"Even the B teams in the MLS didn’t want me. I didn’t even know why. They never gave me a reason. The adults handled everything. They just kept taking me all around Europe, and everybody kept saying no."

"My visa was up. My dream was over. They sent me back to Africa, and we cried together."

"You were the one who never stopped believing. A few weeks later, I signed for Leganés and we cried different tears."

"That was back when I used to have emotions. Now, I don’t feel anything. It’s like I’m not even human. Since you died, I’m just blank."

"I don’t even think I shed a tear the day they told me that you were gone. I was just in shock."

"It was a few weeks after I made my debut for Leganés. Who makes their debut at 18 against Real Madrid? It was too crazy. It was a dream."

"And then it was a nightmare. Someone kept calling me from back home. I was annoyed. I didn’t understand why they kept calling me."

"I picked up, and they didn’t even soften it. You know how it is back home. No emotions. Just……..

“Your sister is gone.”
“What?”
“She died.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Somebody put something in her drink at a party, and she never woke up. She is gone.”

"You were 15."

"15."

"I never got any answers. I don’t know if I want to know why. Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe it’s just something that happens in our country. Maybe I could have protected you. I don’t know."

"I try to trust God’s plan. It’s all I can do. I don’t try to forget, because I know I won’t forget. All I can do is use the pain to work harder, and to do everything we dreamed about."

"I wrote this because I can’t speak about it. I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on. I will make sure that everybody knows your name. The whole world."

"Everything I do on a football pitch, it’s for you."

"So much has happened since I last saw you…… You would not even believe it. I don’t know if I believe it."

"You know what’s crazy? After my debut against Madrid, I actually swapped shirts with Mbappé. Remember when we used to watch him on TV, and you’d say, “Mbappé? Yeah, he’s good. But my brother is better.”

"I was wrong about one thing. I don’t want to be rich. I see what it does to people, even to family. When I was at Leganés, everything I was earning, I was sending home. It got to the point where I didn’t even want money anymore. It was just a burden. They never stopped asking. I guess they thought I was a millionaire already. I didn’t even have an apartment. I was living at the training ground in a room with no TV. Just football and sleep, football and sleep."

"I didn’t want a big house. I didn’t want cars. I just wanted to put everything into football. Everything to show the world that my sister was right……."

"Ha…. you will think this is funny. When I moved to play at RB Leipzig, I was always late. Well, not late. But I was on time, which in Germany means you’re very late."

"So you already know what I did next. I started arriving 90 minutes early to everything. I was so early all the time that the guys started calling me “The German.”"

"I always have to overdo everything. I have zero chill. You always said that."

"The pitch is the only place that I feel at home anymore. It’s the place where I feel calm, and I can speak to you. I just wish you were still here so I could tell you….. We did it."

"Everything you said came true."

"We’re leaving for the World Cup tomorrow. For real. Your brother is going to play for Côte d'Ivoire, like Drogba, like Yaya, like Gervinho."

"I don’t even look at it like a game. I look at it like a stage. This is my chance to show the whole world what you saw in me. Every time I score, I’ll make sure everybody knows your name. I’ll make sure they don’t forget you."

"You always said that I could be better than Cristiano. If I see him there, I’ll tell him hello for you."

"I’m going to do what you predicted, I swear. Before I even had real boots, you were telling everybody, “My brother is going to be the greatest in the world.”

"I will prove that you were right, or I will die trying... Your brother, Yan."

— @PlayersTribune

[Nicki 🫧🪷 @nickimoraa]

Nobody talks about the type of heartbreak where you don't cry anymore, you just stare at walls and feel nothing at all. It's not anger. It's not sadness.
It's the silence that comes when your nervous system has shut down from too much pain. It's emotional exhaustion disguised as calm.

[Ajibola @4jibola]

hopebaiting myself every day.

[Young Kings @HeyYoungKings]

Hot take: dating is harder for men who actually care about doing things right.

[nay🎀. @fineassnayyyy]

Someone said: Normalize celebrating this:

– a roof over your head
– a warm shower
– having clean water
– a day without pain
– moments of gratitude

These are blessings too.

[Triiad ୭୭ @triiadxx]

The people you love don't know how inaccessible you are to other people Until they become the other people too.

[Issybeatz @Issybeatz_]

I’ve got a theory.

When people don’t create
music
art
ideas
anything…

they start creating problems instead.

Unused energy gets weird.

[𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐢✰ @_timiszn]

at war with myself because i understand the potential i have.

[cade🦇 @cadesass]

@WinterBornn Double bed over single duhh

[Rene🧚🫧 @sheisafairyyy]

Normalise a boring life.

Go to bed early. Read long books. Drink tea. Regulate your nervous system. Spend time alone. Go for walks without headphones. Eat simple Food. Shrink your circle. Turn down the noise.

Life doesn’t have to be loud to be magical.

[ashe @ashebytes]

worrying is such a misuse of the imagination

if you are going to visualize the future,
might as well make it beautiful

[𝘼𝙗𝙙𝙪𝙡 @abdulgoncrazy]

I love hearing “we” and “our” when my partner talks. It’s small affirmation.

[goma @soigomaa]

"Sorry bro, you can't hang with us. You cheat on your woman and have other women laughing at her for being loyal to you, we don't respect that." Normalize this in 2026.

[Fav ⛧ @Favwontmiss]

I think true love is when two people make each other love themselves more.

[jeff ski_🔋 @yerafuntrouble]

six months from now I will be in a completely different space financially, spiritually, physically, and socially.

[Lisa @lisathebeauty1]

talk to date. date to marry. marry to grow old together.
only way it should be

[Asanwa.sol @Chizitere_xyz]

It was my birthday last week, and I was sitting in the breakroom at work when a younger coworker asked what my partner had gotten me. She already had her phone out, completely ready to see a picture of a designer bag, a massive $500 floral arrangement, or a viral-worthy dinner receipt.

I told her the truth: He spent his entire weekend covered in grease, replacing the alternator and brake pads on my car, and then he quietly paid off the remaining balance of my student loan that had been giving me rolling panic attacks for six months.

She gave me this deeply tragic, pitying look. “Oh. Well, that’s practical, I guess,” she said. “But you deserve to be spoiled. You know, the princess treatment. A man who really loves you wants to show you off, not just do chores. That's kind of the bare minimum.”

I just stared at her.

What she didn’t see was that for the last half of the year, I had been losing sleep, my hair was thinning from financial stress, and I was terrified to drive my car on the highway. My partner took his only two days off from his own grueling job, completely wrecked his hands under my hood, and drained his own savings, just to hand me back my peace of mind.

The internet has completely rotted our definition of romance. We have been brainwashed to believe that if a man isn't performing his love for an audience, buying things that look highly aesthetic on a TikTok reel, then he isn't doing enough.

We are out here casually calling a man's literal blood, sweat, and absolute financial sacrifice "the bare minimum" just because it doesn't come in a shiny box with a ribbon.

[Veridome @Veridome_]

yall ever LOVED someone so much, u tried to understand them while they was hurting u

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

if being considerate to me makes you feel like you're being controlled, we're not in alignment. Thank you

[dede @derinmama]

bruh life is long. you need to learn how to sit through hard days and not do or say anything stupid.